New and Revised Standards for FCC

By Staff

To help ensure the quality of popular food ingredients increasingly being incorporated into products sold in the United States and worldwide, standards for omega 3-rich krill oil and natural, low-calorie stevia sweeteners are among the latest proposed revisions to the Food Chemicals Codex (FCC). FCC is an internationally recognized compendium of food ingredient quality standards published by the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP).

Manufacturers and other parties are encouraged to comment on these proposals, which are contained in the FCC Forum —the free, online vehicle for public review and comment on draft FCC standards.

“Ensuring the quality of the food ingredients that make up so much of our global food supply is not only part of responsible business practice, but is critical to the health of consumers,” said V. Srini Srinivasan, Ph.D., executive vice president, global science and standards at USP. “Public standards defining the identity, quality and purity of ingredients incorporated into finished products can be an important resource for manufacturers as they source ingredients from suppliers around the world, offering some assurance that they are receiving the ingredients they expect by providing public specifications to which they can be compared. While important for all ingredients, it is especially crucial for high-value ingredients, including those linked to health benefits such as krill oil and so-called natural ingredients such as stevia, which manufacturers and consumers pay a premium for and are in high public demand. We invite comment on the new proposals to allow us to develop robust public standards that are valuable to all parties.”